Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Bota Fino' Chamoru!

Bota Fino’ Chamoru!

Michael Lujan Bevacqua

The Marianas Variety

10/29/14

During the summer, the Hurao Language Camp at the Chamorro
Village in Hagatna held several waves along Marine Drive. This is un såkkan
botasion, an election year and so waves are about as common as Japanese
tourists, with candidates sometimes standing in the early morning and the
twilight hours, hoping to make eye contact with you as you speed by. Hurao’s
wave was somewhat different. It wasn’t for any particular candidate, instead it
was for “Fino’ Chamoru” or the Chamorro language. Children held up signs with
“Håyi hao?” and “Hu tungo’ håyi yu’” on them, and shouted out “Bota Fino’
Chamoru!” to those driving by. Johnny’s Sablan’s immortal classic “Mungga Yu’
Mafino’ Inglesi” or “Don’t Speak English to Me” blared in the background.

It is that time of the year, when young 18, 19 and 20 year
old in my classes, who will be voting for the first time start to wonder about
this new rite of passage they are about to go through. Most of my students
don’t come from very political families, and so an election year feels like
some frightening hallucinogenic dream, where a legion of smiling people with
numbers next to their names keep asking, keep demanding a vote from you. Those
that do come from political families are always excited to get their chance to
vote for someone who is a family friend or whose signs they’ve helped put up
before, who whose waves they’ve helped to populated before.

Classes will invariably get distracted as someone will ask
for the thoughts of others on a particular candidate or on a particular issues.
Sometimes students will just come right out and ask who they should vote for,
unsure from the multicolored signs, that look like massacres of Guam seals and
American flags, who would be the best choice. How does one pick good
candidates?

When it is an election year I will routinely offer my
students choices about what project they would like to take on next or what
kind of exam they would like, but I will do so in a way that is meant to make
them think before they vote. I will offer them two to three choices, and
provide some warm and fuzzy, but in truth empty, and largely meaningless words
for each choice and then ask them to vote on which they would prefer. My
students of course get a little bit irked at this, they then complain that it
isn’t fair since they do not know what they are voting for. That’s my cue to
smile and chide them by saying, it is an election year and the same holds true
in November. What do you really know about the candidates that you are
supporting or that you will vote for?

How easy is it for a candidate to say nice things about all
the major issues? How easy is it for them to create and for the public to
consume such political platitudes? If a candidate says they are strong on this
particular issue, how can you tell? How many people pay attention to all the
flurry of activity in an election year and then have no idea what is going on
for the months after that? If what you know about a candidate comes primarily
from that candidate and their own promotional materials, how much can you trust
that information to be objective?

I have two main points of advice for my students when
picking candidates. If you want to pick your candidates for intellectual
reasons, on the basis of their platform that is admirable, but be sure that you
actually know something about those candidates. Make sure you know something
about the issues involved. If you think someone is a great candidate because of
their record, make sure you know their record, and not just the things they
blazon and won’t let anyone else forget, but also their mistakes along the way.
In Chamorro we say “I linachi-mu siha muna’kapas hao” meaning that a person’s
mistakes may say more about their character than their successes.

But this route is not for most people. This route requires
research, requires asking questions, requires challenging the assumptions of
yourself and others in order to determine candidate compatibility. The other
route, is the one most people take and that is selecting candidates on more
“heartfelt” reasons. Because they feel connected to a candidate, because of a
strong positive memory involving the candidate, even because a candidate
attended a family event or the memorial for a loved one. My students are always
surprised when I propose that these reasons are legitimate reasons when picking
a candidate, but they are. Politics is not just platforms, it is also
relationships and connections. On an island like Guam these sorts of
connections can have great meaning for people. For example, Politicians who go
to family functions often times contribute chenchule’ or ika’ bringing them
into the reciprocity networks, becoming a member of one’s extended network.

But at the end of the day, I tell my students, you should,
at the very minimum understand why you are voting for someone. Whether it is
something that is very analytical or something very personal, at least
understand why you are casting your ballot in this way.

For me, the chief criteria for picking candidates is the
Chamorro language. Are they able to speak the Chamorro language? Are they
learning the Chamorro language? This has nothing to do with whether they are
Chamorro or not, because non-Chamorros have historically learned Chamorro on
Guam and I am in full-support of that. You might find this requirement to be
strange or silly, but from my perspective it is critical. Chamorro is an
official language of Guam, and one that has been spoken here for thousands of
years. But when I look at the list of candidates this time around, there are
less Chamorro speakers than ever in an election, just as there are less
Chamorro speakers in general on island. I feel that those who want to represent
this island should be fluent in both of its official languages and if they
don’t speak it when starting in office, they should commit to learning it.

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Put Guahu / About Me

This blog is dedicated to Chamorro issues, the use and revitalization of the Chamoru language and the decolonization of Guam. This blog also aims to inform people around the world about the history, culture and language and struggles of the Chamorro people, who are the indigenous islanders of Guam, Saipan, Tinian, Luta and Pagan in the Mariana Islands. Pues Haggannaihon ha', ya taitai na'ya, ya Si Yu'us Ma'ase para i finatto-mu.

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The Revolution Will Not Be Haolified

THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE HAOLIFIEDTinige’ as Guahu - 2003 (updated 2008)

You will not be able to ignore it che’lu * This time you will not be able to blame it all on Anghet * You will not be able to change channels * And watch Fear Factor, Rev TV of Salamat Po Guam because * The Revolution will not be televised

The revolution will not be televised, nor will it be advertised * It will not be sponsored by the Good Guys at Moylan’s or the better guys at AK. * It will not be something easily explained by radio callers * Whether they be Positively Local, Definitively Settler, or Surprisingly Coconut * It will not be cornered by the Calvos and explained by Sabrina Salas * Matanane * After the story about the incoming B-52’s or 1000’s of Marines careening towards to Guam, and how we * should be economically energized and not terrorized. * Jon Anderson will have no TT anecdotes about it * and Chris Barnett won’t malafunkshun it because the revolution will not be televised

The revolution will not be televised or editorialized * It will not be something canabilized with two inches here two inches there * Dubious headlines everywhere * Lee Weber will not edit it * Joe Murphy will not put it in his pipe and smoke it * Nor dream about it, or tell others the wonders and blunders of it. * There will be no letters to the editor quoting scriptures or denying its constitutionality * And there will be no American flag inserts saying these three colors just don’t run * As the revolution will not be editorialized

The revolution will not be televised or politicized * It will not play the same old gayu games * And promise you that same old talonan things. * The revolution will not wave at you as you drive by on Marine Drive * And seduce you with its hardworking eyes. * It will not be territorial or popular, and not encourage you with maolek blue. * The revolution will not put marang salaman po after its speeches to get more Filipino votes in the next election because the revolution will not be politicized

The revolution will not be televised, not be theorized * It will not be something GCC or UOG friendly. * There will be no books at Bestseller offering to help you lose something in 90 days * Or Rachel Ray helping you cook the revolution of your way. * Ron McNinch will not survey it * and will not poll people about their revolution of choice. * There will be no WASC review report demanding accountability demanding autonomy * And no beachcombing carpetbaggers will proclaim their own terminal authority * Over the histories, the laws, the thinking of those for whom they see nothing but corrupt and corrupting inferiority * The revolution will not be colonized

The revolution will not be televised, not be supersized. * The revolution will not be something you can buy at Ross, or get at blue light cost * It is not just red rice, kelaguan uhang, or popcorn with Tobacco sauce. * It doesn’t come with Coke and it doesn’t fit on a fiesta plate. * The revolution will not make you gof sinexy, cure your jafjaf, or make fragrant your fa’fa’ * The revolution will not force you to be where America’s empire begins * Or where Japan’s golf courses and Gerry Yingling’s credit card debt ends. * You won’t need a credit card, or be charged for the tin foil to cover your balutan * As the revolution will not be economized

The revolution will not be televised, blownback or militarized * There will be no more physical ordnance buried in people’s lands * And no more patrionizing propaganda buried in people’s minds * The revolution will not get you cheaper cases of chicken or increased commissary privileges. * It will not make freedomless flags feel more comfortable in your hands * Or make uniforms fit more snugly around your mind. * The revolution will not deny racism or exploitation * And not create histories about landfalls of destiny * But instead publicize the racism and evils of American hegemony. * The revolution will not be subsidized by construction contracts or the race of Senator Inouye or Congressman Burton * It will not be laid waste to by daisy cut budgets or Medicare spending limits * Instead it will be sustained by deep memories that refuse to die * The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised and will not polarize based on blood or color * It will not make your skin lighter * It will not make your skin darker * It will not test your blood the way Hitler or Uncle Sam would of done * It will not hate some and love others based on their time of naturalization * Or incept date of their compacts of free association. * But the revolution will help some find comfort, find strength, find power * In their connections to the land and to each other * Allow some to discover the sovereignty that can be found in solidarity * The revolution will take and remake this consciousness that doesn’t need to be televised * But does need to be revolutionized * The revolution will not be haolified * The revolution will not be haolified